Bright Week

Easter Monday and these are the lucky ones!  Mum and two lambs on the wasteland near the new undercover sports facility.

Snow on the distant mountains of Turkey - this is why the wind is still so cold.

A cold and windy Easter Saturday morning.  In the summer these cafes and bars off the square in Chorio are very popular, particularly in the evenings before dinner in the nearby tavernas.  In April, however, it is still too cold to be sitting out there and there is not much activity in the evenings.

One of the lanes leading into the oldest parts of Chorio, the upper village.  In some areas there are lots of arches as houses straddled the lanes to save space.

A Chorio cat, proudly modelling her new pink collar.

The area referred to as Pitini, as seen from outside the Symi Visitor Accommodation office in Yialos.  Pitini stretches from the water front up to the windmills at the top of the hill.

Colourful fishing boats in Yialos.

The Michalaki, Costas Valsami's bronze statue of the little Symi fisherboy.

Windy skies over Yialos.  The cafes are taking down their plastic weather tents and the tourist shops are starting to unpack their wares.  The Symi Visitor Accommodation office upstairs is in the small building just behind the larger of the two palm trees but our entrance is actually from the lane in the middle of the picture as our building runs behind Pachos, the yellow three storey building with the green shutters.

Spring daisies on a windowsill in Yialos.
Symi's Easter celebrations passed off well with no accidents and a great deal of enjoyment for all concerned.  The dancing in the town square last night and the firework display were particularly well received and the town square was packed.  There was a hung-over silence lingering over the island this morning that only started to lift about an hour ago!  It is a bank holiday today so the banks, post office and many other businesses are closed but the grocers, bakeries and wine shops are open. Today is Bright Monday - the start of what is supposed to be a week of feasting. Any name days that fell during the Lenten fast are celebrated this week.

After bitterly cold weather with gale force winds and shipping bans on Good Friday and Easter Saturday, Easter Sunday was bright and the wind dropped enough for it to be pleasant out of doors.  This week should see the first really mild temperatures on the up side of 20 degrees centigrade and perhaps we will finally have a full week without any ferry disruptions so the things people need from Rhodes to prepare their businesses for the season can arrive.  Outdoor furniture, umbrellas and awnings, new mattresses and cushions, bamboo for pergolas, domestic appliances, building materials and all sorts of other essentials have to come over on the ferry, so when it fails to make it, as happened on Friday, projects are held up until the boat eventually arrives.  It is not unusual for part of an order to arrive on one boat and then the rest to arrive several days later on another if the person responsible for putting it on the ferry in Rhodes has gone off to do something else in the meantime or if two different suppliers are involved.  Sometimes things get sent to one of the couriers.  Sometimes you have to collect them from the boat yourself.  Sometimes the stockist forgets to tell you he has put it on the boat and your parcel goes to Kos, Patmos or Piraeus and you have to wait for it to pass through Symi again and grab it. In the spring one may be stopped by someone in the street, asking if one knows so-and-so because there is a package sitting in some unexpected corner with that name on it.  It all gets sorted out in the end but visitors unfamiliar with island ways are sometimes baffled at how long it can take for a seemingly simple thing like a sun lounger or an umbrella to appear.  Forget 24 hour deliveries!

Have a good week.

Regards,
Adriana

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About this Blog

I sailed into Panormitis Bay, Symi, by chance one windy July day in 1993 and have been here ever since. The locals tell me that this is one of the miracles of St Michael of Panormitis. A BA graduate with majors in English, Philosophy and Classical Civilisation, the idea of living in what is to all intents and purposes an archaeological site appeals to me. Not as small as Kastellorizo, not as touristy as Rhodes, Symi is just the right size. I live on a small holding which my husband and I have reclaimed from a ruin of over-grazing and neglect and turned into a small oasis over the course of the past 22 years. I also work part-time for Symi Visitor Accommodation, helping independent travellers discover and enjoy Symi's simple pleasures for themselves.

This page is kindly sponsored by Wendy Wilcox, Symi Visitor Accommodation.


Adriana Shum

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